Friday, September 27, 2013

Make. Good. Work. (or, On the Academic Job Market)

First, go read Jonathan’s post hereon empathy, and enjoy all the no doubt wonderful posts that will come in the next few days about Oceanic New York and Critical Liberal Arts.

The epigraph and opening for this post is
advice given by David Wallace to one of his graduate students :

“All
this [jobs and postdoc applications] can be overthought. The first and last
imperative is: do good work, and work that you believe in.”

Earlier this
month, I was asked to speak to the graduate students in my department about the
job market application process. This isn’t of great note, except that it
precipitated a fateful facebook post, looking for advice from those not quite
so geong on geardum as myself.

And so Friday the 13th precipitated one of my
most commented-on Facebook posts. It also, as we all know, heralded the posting
of the MLA job list for 2013-2014.

The post marks one of the best conversations – open, honest,
and useful – that I’ve ever had about the job market. And so, with the goodwill
of many of my colleagues, I’ve collated here the advice they wish they’d
gotten, or did get, or learned the hard way. I’ve created several headings
under which to file said advice, in the hopes that graduate students and
job-market-goers of all varieties will find easily the type of advice they are
looking for. Feel free to add to my list in the comments here. Or on facebook,
where you can read the whole thing: it came to 11 pages in total, so this is
much abridged! And of course, this post isn’t meant to be comphrensive: rather,
it’s a sampling of advice that might or might not be useful to folks facing the
job market.

1.
Existential Advice

a. No one is
alone. Your colleagues are not your rivals. One of the things that, for me,
made the job market livable was not doing it alone. Find colleagues and friends
you can root for without inhibition, both in your field and beyond it. Tim
Youker adds “avoid thinking of your peers as rivals,” and Ryan Judkins suggests
that “one should avoid the black hole of competition with each other and anger
at the process and the academy.”

b. Departments are people with quirks too.
Amanda Walling says, “Think about the departments in which you have studied or
worked. Did the people in them have their own eccentricities, hobbyhorses,
prejudices, and longstanding personal conflicts? Probably so. And the people in
the departments where you apply will have just as many that you don't know
about, that will come into play in their reading of your application. It is not
a meritocracy, or a referendum on your work as a scholar, and 'fit' is not code
for that. It's a bunch of flawed people making compromises with each other and with
their administrators, and sometimes where you fit into that is just blind luck.”
This luck element cannot be overstated.

c. You cannot read the minds of departments who
post job ads. Chris Piuma puts it this way, and gives us “the most helpful
thing I've heard, as a grad student, translated: The hiring process is a black
box—a different black box every time—and, outside the vaguest generalities, you
cannot predict what goes on inside that black box; it is, for all intents and
purposes, irrational, and, whether you get the job or not, it is no reflection
on you.” Christina Fitzgerald notes that you should “also know that committees
sometimes disagree with each other, and may even inadvertently set you up for
failure because of it. This is not your fault.”

d.The Job Market is not a referendum on your
worth as a scholar, a colleague, or a human being. Robert Stanton puts it:
“Understand that a tighter job market doesn't mean that only the very best
people get jobs, but rather that imponderables and quirks become bigger
factors.” Jeffrey Cohen adds: “Don't internalize rejection; it means nothing.” I’d
add that my favorite coping mechanism for rejection a drink, or dessert, or
long walk in a beautiful park with good friends.

e.The Jobs Wiki is not your friend. While
it is tempting to watch the wiki like a hawk (and I’ll admit to having done so
a bit during all of my job market runs), consider its implications. It may have
information that you might not get anywhere else, but as Jeffrey observes,
“Much that appears on the job wiki is mean-spirited and wrong.” Think through
who you are, and how you’ll respond to the culture of the wiki, before you
click that link!

f. Be your
Best Self, and find support for that best self. Jonathan Hsy gives us a
checklist for that process:

1. Always keep an open mind.

2a. Be honest, and 2b. Be yourself (the
"best version" of yourself of course).

3. Find understanding people (not necessarily
academics but people who "get" the weirdness of the process you face)
to be your sounding boards.

g. Take care of yourself, psychologically and
physically. Jeffrey writes: “Rely on your friends and supportive colleagues
(and be there for others). Do what you can to keep anxiety down: run, see
movies, take walks, whatever.”

2.
Preparing for Applications

a. Prepare
in advance of the job market. But do so in a way that reflects your
interests and expertise.Kevin
Caliendo writes, “Broaden your profile by developing skills and projects
outside of your primary field. For example, show that you can teach composition
(that you know current ideas and best practices in Comp, not just that you can
teach a section they assign you). Develop skills in digital humanities
applicable outside of your discipline (ex. learn markup).”

b. Tailor
your letters. No, seriously: tailor your letters. There are a variety of
ways to approach this, but make sure that you’ve seen the website for the
department you’re applying to at the very least – it may be that there’s a
program they’re spearheading that’s JUST PERFECT for your research, and it’s up
to you to make certain they know you know! Ryan Judkins notes that while this advice
is thrown around pretty often, “both the necessity of doing that and learning
HOW to do it well take awhile.” Seek advice from other job market veterans,
and...

c. Have
someone outside your field read your application materials. It can be very
painful to share your materials and have them critiqued, but can only help in
the long run. Megan Cook suggests that you “have someone outside your area read
your materials to make sure they're interesting, accessible, and free of
field-specific jargon, especially if you're looking for a job at an SLAC or in
another small department.”

d. Have an article out for consideration, or
already accepted. This is not just because of the “publish-of-perish” model
of academia either – it’s also soothing for you to have the article. As
Catherine Osborne points out: “not only does it demonstrate that you can
publish etc, but it also reduces the angst around what to send as a writing
sample by 400%.”

e. Don’t try to change who you are. As Tim
Youker puts it, “Trying to pull off a new self-refashioning for every
application is a mug's game [. . .] Committees can tell that you're doing it,
and it doesn't impress them.”

f. Accept
the things you cannot change, and that you have no control over. Put
another way (Catherine Osborne again), “All you can do is have a decent CV,
write the best letter you can, and then hope that you happen to fit their idea.
It's important not to get caught up in the idea that you can convince them
you're someone you're not.” Lenora Warren sagely adds: “There is no perfect
formula to getting a job. Don't obsess over gaps in your CV to the point where
you psyche yourself out.”

3.
Interview Advice

a. Practice.
Practice. Practice. Most schools will happily set up a mock interview. Do
one every year – it is possible to forget how to act in an interview.

b. Practice
your elevator pitch. It’s the most concise form of your research
explanation. Bruce Holsinger has a fantastic exercise over at Burnable Books – #3tweetsmax.
Try it. Try it again. See what you learn about your project when speaking/typing
about it concisely.

c. Make your
research accessible and interesting. It’s already the most fascinating
thing you do, but it’s important to talk about your research to a search
committee differently than you’d talk about it to your medievalist colleagues. Dan
Kline notes that it’s important to “Remember that for smaller schools (and the
'directional' schools), there's probably not going to be someone in your field
on the committee, so you have to be accessible and fluent in your research
pitch.” Catherine Osborne suggests that “A good way to be ‘accessible’ when
talking about your research, if it's not immediately obvious why your research
has broader relevance to the state of the world, is to start by saying ‘a big
problem in my field/subfield is X. People have tried to solve it in ways Y and
Z. I wondered if we couldn't approach it in way M instead.’ This shows that
you're well-situated in your field while also explaining why your not-immediately-obviously-useful
work is aimed at an actual problem and not just for fun.”

d. Know the
department that you’re interviewing with. Dan Kline reminds us that “many
committees are looking for people who can teach the courses in their
department, so it's wise to look at the website to get a sense of (1) what
courses you'd likely teach (first half of the British and world lit surveys,
most likely) and (2) how you'd approach them. It's always a good sign for a
committee when a candidate, unbidden, says something like, 'I was noticing on
your website that in the structure of your English major that students take
...' or 'From your website it looks like students most often get medieval
content in ... ' It shows that you're actively imagining how you meet their
needs.” Moreover, it can focuse you on the
excitement of an interview rather than how nervewracking it is.

e. Did I
mention PRACTICE? You should also consider practicing for the TYPE of
interview you are having. Phone interview? Try to get friends to conference
call you and see how you come across. Dorothy Kim reminds us that Skype
interviews are different from regular interviews: “Do a mock in the location
you will be doing it. There may be weird technical and angle things you don't
even notice (glare of computer on glasses, lighting, etc.) that can easily be
addressed etc. Also it hyper-emphasizes any talking ticks.” Keep in mind that
to make “eye contact” you will need to talk to the camera. The upside of this:
it’s the most like a movie star many of us will ever feel!

f. You can’t
read their minds. Interviews result in lots of feelings. You might feel
like you were so great they’ll cancel all their other interviews (unlikely), or
you might feel like you’ve actually just tanked your career (thankfully this is
also unlikely). Luckily – as Tim reminded us – “how you felt about an interview
walking out of it is an unreliable indicator of whether you'll reach the next
phase. I didn't feel great about the interview for the job that I actually got,
whereas what I still think was the best interview I've given didn't even lead
to a job talk.” These stories are pretty common, in my experience – so have a
“survival celebration drink” and then do your absolute best not to overthink
it.

4.
Campus Visit and Post-Campus Visit Advice

a. This goes
without saying at this point, but PRACTICE. Make sure you’ve given your
talk and practiced answering questions. Try to get a mock job talk group
together that includes people outside your field, and professors who have acted
on job committees before. The questions you will get are not standard
conference fare, but will likely be very wide-ranging and important to practice
for/be aware of.

b. Know
what’s expected. Dorothy Kim points out that you need to know what they
expect of your job talk: “Find out explicit instructions and reconfirm what
they want (whether for general audience, specialists, length, etc. etc.).”

c. The teaching demo is not always teaching per se... Teaching Demos are one of the harder part of the campus
visits, particularly because your audience is both the students AND the
observing faculty. Catherine Osborne notes that one way to approach the
teaching demo is to “think of it as a performance which requires certain
elements: some form of tech (powerpoint, preferably a video clip), some form of
class discussion (preferably involving small groups), some form of (preferably
brief) lecture.” I would also note that it rarely feels like a normal class.

d. Be your best self. Your extroverted best
self. As Melissa Ridley Elmes mentioned, a lot of your campus visit is
about performance – what you’re like, how you get along with others: “The
happier and more enthusiastic and comfortable and natural you are up there, the
better you are going to look. And for the love of all that is good and holy,
SMILE. Real smiles, not plastered-on smiles. ENJOY yourself -- even if the
interviews suck, even if you don't think you have a shot, when you actually get
up in front of people to talk about your work you should be having fun. You are
talking about Your Thing. Sell it! And TALK to people. Talk to Everybody. Just
this once, for these couple of hours, no matter how introverted you are, really
interact.” That said, if you hate smiling or are otherwise not a smiler, engage
in the way that feels natural to you.

e. Know your audience. This is obvious for
the job talk – don’t give a talk for medievalists only if you’re speaking to
mostly 20th century specialists. Consider that you should look for
the good in the place you’re visiting, too. This means, as Megan Mulder points
out, “If you're interviewing at a school in a small town and/or red state, be
really, really careful not to do anything that suggests you'd be whiny and
miserable there and would be looking for another job within a couple of years.
Trust me, they will be hypersensitive about this.” And regardless of
hypersensitivity – they are hosting you. Be gracious.

f. Once
again, accept that you cannot read their minds. There is, as Peter Buchanan
relates, no such thing as the perfect job talk: “From having seen a large
number of job talks last year, I think one important thing to realize is that
there is no such thing as the perfect job talk. Most job talks are pretty good
because we're smart, articulate people working hard to achieve our goals.
That's enough to get a job (although it doesn't mean you will get one). Some
people will like your work better than others, and what works in one department
might not work in another. Another important thing to realize is that schools
want to hire you. They ask for more materials and interview you because
somebody already likes you. It's just they may not show it, and they might not
call until six months later when you get a letter that says, ‘It's not you,
it's me. You're great, but I've met somebody else.’”

g. After
your visit, remember you have options. Christina Fitzgerald reminds us that
it’s important to “know that you can negotiate stuff, especially once you have
an offer, including asking for extensions to make decisions about an offer and
even salary and start-up funds. The market makes us so abject that we forget
that sometimes we have some leverage!” As Meg Worley puts it: “Don't say
"yes" right away when the offer you the job Even if it's the job of
your dreams, say "Let me think about it." Then, go read an article on
how to negotiate, before you do anything else. If you're female, read a second
one that decries the tendency of women not to play hardball. Only THEN should
you say yes, and then play hardball.”

5.
Clothing Advice

Not surprisingly, a
lot of really great advice was given regarding what to wear to interviews and
campus visits (we medievalists are a stylish set). A lot was aimed particularly at women – don’t, for example, wear
a pantsuit if you are not a pantsuit kind of a person. I’ve made an effort here
to encapsulate the more gender-neutral salient points.

a. Be
yourself. (Yes, your best self.) Meg Worley suggests that you “dress like
yourself, not some over-coached drone candidate.” The best advice I ever
received was to make sure that your clothes didn’t look like they were still on
the hanger. Be comfortable in them.

b. Test your
shoes first! Make sure that you can walk, comfortably, possibly a long way,
in the shoes that you wear. This goes for everyone.

c. One last word on suits: Lenora Warren
gives the fantastic advice that “If you have a professional outfit that makes
you feel like a superhero that's probably the one to go with. If you feel
compelled to buy a suit, and you are not a suit person, think of the droves and
droves of awkward newly minted phds in stiff new suits that will be hurrying
around MLA and ask yourself, ‘Is this how I want to present myself?’”

6. And
finally, just in case you were feeling blue, or nervous, or just plain scared,
remember the great advice from the Old English poem Deor. Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg! (Thanks to Steve Rozenski
for keeping it in perspective at the end, and for reminding us that the best
recording is Seamus Heaney, reciting his translation on the Norton Website. To
translate: “That passed over, this can too.”)

9 comments:

If the way that you approach a school "in a small town and/or red state" is to assume that they will be hypersensitive about how whiny you will be living there, then it's probably already too late to cure you of your arrogant prejudice against places that aren't New York, Boston, Chicago, or California.

Thanks so much for this post, Mary Kate. I followed the Facebook conversation with considerable interest, and I really appreciate everything that you've written here. Truly invaluable advice, which I'll be returning to again and again as I navigate the market this year.

MK, Thanks for posting this. I have a piece of advice, too, although I am still in the process. Explain the vagaries of the job process to your friends and family (including academics, if they are not in the humanities) well beforehand. To non-academics, the length of the process and the diversity of the options can seem really alien, and they should be prepared. It's especially important, I think, that parents understand that just because you go to a famous grad school, this does not mean you'll be taking a job at a famous college or university.

Alison: That is undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of the job market, and on both sides. I've been on the receiving end of sudden silence, but so far not on the silent side. I hope that when the time comes I remember what it felt like.

Anonymous: This is a really great point. I'm lucky, actually, because my mother chose not to pursue a career in academia because of the job market. While my immediate family understands the vicissitudes of academia, however, sometimes other friends or family members don't quite understand that when there's a job in my state for a medievalist or even just an English professor, it might not be a likely scenario that I'll be coming home.